Building a budget from the ground

OUR VIEW:

September 26, 2005

As Otsego County commissioners attempt to trim $2.25 million from their budget - and after years of finding stop-gap revenue sources to avert the need - it must be the best thing they can do to try and build their 2006 finances from the ground up.

Find every service required by the state, whether or not it comes with funding, and build from there.

In the past, commissioners and their department heads have acted more like tree trimmers, pruning branches and adding fertilizer to try and spur revenue growth.

That is no longer enough as counties try to cope with the shifting sands of state revenue streams.

Determining what is mandated may not be the only challenge facing our elected leaders as an office or service may be "mandated" without determining the extent of the service required.

Look at some of the cuts being drafted: eight deputies, a sheriff's clerk, the Planning and Zoning Dept., funding to the Michigan State University Extension, one airport employee and 20 percent in nonunion wages, where those positions are not eliminated entirely.

Advertisement

Early estimates are that those cuts might save $1 million.

The point, of course, is that none of these discussions is going to be easy and that the years of letting department heads recommend cuts on their own are gone.

Nothing has been set in stone, but it makes good sense to build a new foundation around what is mandated. You, at home, don't pay your cable bill before your heating bill, right?